Collectors Gallery | Small Works by Ken Knight & Sally Ryan

An impressionist ‘plein-air’ painter, Ken’s work is charged with a freshness and spontaneity that cannot be created in a studio. Ken approaches the landscape with a contemporary boldness. His use of textural oils applied by swift palette knife gestures and energetic brush strokes are highly responsive to the scene in front of him. The result is a painting which offers something a little different each time it is viewed. Up close, his paintings are brilliantly abstract - a myriad of brushstrokes and edges of thick paint - but stand back a few paces and they resolve into a landscape of texture, mood, time and place which shifts slightly with each viewing.

Sally Ryan is an Australian realist painter based in Sydney. Her practice encompasses various genres of painting including still life, interiors, portraiture and figurative painting. She has commissioned works hanging in private collections as well as in Universities and Schools, the Parliament (of Victoria) and the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney (including St Mary’s Cathedral) within Australia.

Sally began her training at the Julian Ashton Art School (Sydney) where she was awarded a scholarship year in 2010. She has further refined her skills through workshops at Studio Escalier, Paris, Grand Central Academy, NY and Menorca Pulsar, Spain.

For some years now, Sally has been working professionally as a portrait painter and has had her work recognised in numerous competitions both nationally and internationally, including the international ARC Salon. In 2019 she was awarded Signature Status with the Portrait Society of America for continuous excellence in portraiture.

In addition to her own practice, Sally teaches portraiture and still life painting at Hamley Studio (in Hornsby, Sydney) as well as running workshops throughout Australia. She is available for commissions worldwide.

Sally is a finalist in the 2023 Archibald Prize with her portrait of Claudia Chan. Sally was also a finalist in this prize in 2013. She was the winner of the People’s Choice Award at the Salon des Refuses in 2018 and has been a finalist in many other prestigious art awards in Australia and abroad.